Six consortia have been selected to compete in Germany’s Quantum Computing Competition (QCC). The QCC is a major initiative of the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) to advance error-corrected quantum computing in Germany.
With up to €640 million in funding planned, the competition aims to advance different technological approaches towards at least two error-corrected quantum computers at the European technological frontier by 2030 and make them accessible for industrial applications. The six selected consortia span three technology platforms: neutral atoms, trapped ions and superconducting circuits, with two consortia selected for each approach.
The Quantum Computing Competition sits at the heart of the High-Tech Agenda Deutschland (HTAD). Quantum technologies are one of six priority key technologies under the HTAD, ranking second.
The six consortia selected are:
- LOGIQC — Logical Operations, Gates and Infrastructure for Quantum Computing – is coordinated by planqc and has its roots in the Munich Quantum Valley. The consortium brings together leading research and industry partners, including the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ), Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), the University of Tübingen, Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ), and TOPTICA Photonics.
“The selection of LOGIQC is a strong validation of our technological approach and the capabilities of the entire consortium,” said Dr. Sebastian Blatt, Co-Founder and CTO of planqc. “Germany has all the ingredients to play a leading role in quantum computing. The critical step now is to bring these strengths together and scale them. The QCC comes at exactly the right time to help turn Germany’s strength in quantum research into industrial leadership.”
The project will develop a hardware-efficient, error-corrected quantum computer based on neutral ytterbium atoms, capable of performing universal logical operations on encoded qubits. Complementary infrastructure will provide the laboratories, laser systems, test facilities and pilot-line capabilities needed to scale the technology and prepare critical hardware for industrialization. - NFQC-1k — QUDORA will lead a seven-member consortium of research institutions and industry partners in a bid to build one of Europe’s most advanced quantum computers. The project, named NFQC-1k, will develop a quantum computer with at least 1,000 qubits at European state-of-the-art level, built on trapped-ion technology and powered by QUDORA’s proprietary NFQC technology. In parallel, a pilot line for high-performance quantum processor units (QPUs) will be established.
Germany’s Federal Minister for Research, Technology and Space, Dorothee Bär, has emphasized the strategic significance of the program: quantum computers are among the most important key technologies of our time and will take computing power to a new level. In the future, they could speed up drug development and enable optimal traffic control; through new approaches in machine learning, quantum computers also promise a boost for AI models. Germany’s competitiveness and sovereignty depend on playing a leading role internationally. With clear, measurable success criteria, the Quantum Computing Competition aims to produce technologically excellent quantum computers “Made in Germany.”
As consortium lead, QUDORA combines its expertise in developing fault-tolerant quantum processors with the strengths of six further partners from academia and industry:
— TU Braunschweig (Technical University of Braunschweig)
— Leibniz University Hannover (LUH)
— Physikalisch – Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB, Germany’s national metrology institute)
— NXP Semiconductors Germany GmbH (a global semiconductor company with a major German R&D and manufacturing presence)
— Forschungszentrum Jülich (one of Europe’s largest interdisciplinary research centers, active in quantum computing)
— AQT Germany GmbH (the German entity of Alpine Quantum Technologies, a spin-off of the University of Innsbruck specializing in trapped-ion quantum computers)
As consortium lead, QUDORA is responsible for the development and integration of the overall system. The partners contribute with complementary expertise, from fundamental research to semiconductor technology. The aim of NFQC-1k is to become a system that can be put to economic use in Germany and Europe over the long term.
The project’s goal is to build a quantum computer demonstrator with at least 1,000 individually addressable physical qubits and at least 50 logical qubits, at a logical gate error rate below 0.01%. The demonstrator’s performance will be verified through a Quantum Fourier Transform (QFT), a core building block of quantum algorithms and applications. In parallel, the consortium will implement a pilot line for high-performance QPU based on ion-trap technology.
“Fault tolerance is not a milestone achieved by improving a single qubit. What truly matters is building an architecture in which thousands of resilient qubits can be controlled, and operated reliably, without the system falling apart as it scales,” said Amado Bautista-Salvador, CEO of QUDORA.
“NFQC-1k builds on our NFQC technology to develop a fault-tolerant quantum computer alongside leading German research institutions and companies. That our project has been selected shows the confidence of German government in our technology as well as the expertise of our partners and the Quantum Valley Lower Saxony,” said Henning Hahn, COO of QUDORA.
The funding runs for up to five years and is part of the BMFTR’s Quantum Systems research program. NFQC-1k’s total project volume is approximately €122 million, shared across all seven consortium partners. Following the successful outline phase, the consortium can now submit the full application after which the partners will move into the concrete implementation phase. - ATHENA-X — led by the start-up Peak Quantum, and includes Walther-Meissner-Institute (WMI), Zurich Instruments, Fraunhofer EMFT, Freie Universität Berlin and the Munich Quantum Valley.
- SPARQC — includes the Hamburg-based start-up Eqcited, as well as the University of Hamburg and the Technical University of Kaiserslautern (as reported by Handelsblatt).
- NEXUS — includes the Bavarian start-up neQxt as well as the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, the University of Hamburg and several companies (as reported by Handelsblatt).
- SuperPilot — formed from the German-Finnish start-up IQM Germany with Infineon AG also involved (as reported by Handelsblatt).
The QCC is designed as a staged competition with defined technical milestones. The selected consortia will now enter the next stage, with at least one partner in each consortium required to demonstrate a functioning system meeting defined entry criteria by March 31, 2027. The projects will then work towards increasingly ambitious targets for scale and error correction, with a further selection after 30 months determining which projects continue to receive support.
